*envy*
I'd love to do that. Need a bass-baritone?
I think the most effective concert I ever went to was when the national Youth Orchestra of Wales and the National Youth Choir of Wales got together to perform Karl Jenkins' "The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace"
blew me away. Seriously, people were crying during that one.
I played Tuba when my orchestra did it last November in Brecon Cathedral, in the same concert where we did Faure's (sp?) requiem. One of our best concerts, though since surpassed by the concert we did this month, where our leader did a fantastic job of Tchaikovsky's violin concerto. i wish I'd recorded it, he absolutely nailed it.
I love my orchestra. We do some fantastic concerts, and I'm really proud (and lucky) to be a part of it. We did the 1812 overture in the mediterranean dome of the national botanical gardens (wales), complete with cannon, guns and fireworks. glorious stuff.
our leader, actually, is a real blessing. his name's Rhys Watkins, and he is, without a doubt, the best violin player I have ever known. he's twenty-eight years old, and I have never heard anybody who plays "Schindler's List" anywhere near as well as he does it.
And our real claim to fame is that we once played with Katherine Jenkins (the famous soprano). Hell, our regular tenor almost had a nervous breakdown having to sing alongside her. Apparently, she slipped out of her top during rehearsal, but only our conductor noticed, more's the pity.